Margaret Smyth (1834 – 1897), great great grandmother of my husband Greg, emigrated on the ‘Persian‘ to Australia from Ireland, arriving in Melbourne, Victoria on 9 April 1854 with a baby born on the passage.
The passenger list records that Margaret Smyth was from Cavan. Her religion was Church of England; she could read and write; and she was 20 years old. She did not find a job immediately on landing, but went to stay with her cousin John Hunter. I am yet to find out more about John Hunter.
On 19 November 1855 Margaret Smyth, dressmaker from Cavan, aged 22, married John Plowright, also 22, a gold digger. Their wedding was held at the residence of John Plowright, in Magpie, on the Ballarat diggings, five miles or so from where Greg and I live now. On the certificate Margaret’s parents are given as William Smyth, farmer, and Mary nee Cox.
On documents Margaret usually gave her birthplace as Cavan. On her death certificate her birthplace was given by her adopted son Harold as Bailieborough, Cavan.
Northern end of Castle Lough in the Bailieborough Demesne 
Main Street, Bailieborough, Co. Cavan in 2007
The ‘Ireland Valuation Books’ of 1838 have a William Smyth of Tanderagee Townland, Bailieborough Parish, Clankee Barony, County Cavan. This could be Margaret’s father.
More and more records are being digitised, so perhaps some useful documents will come to light. DNA connections also offer some tantalising clues but I have not yet found any definite Smyth cousins.
I hope we can visit Ireland one day, and Cavan will certainly be part of the trip. Before we go I hope I will have discovered more about Margaret Smyth’s family there.
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Wikitree: Margaret Smyth
I find the most amazing part of Margaret Smyth’s story is that she gave birth on board the ship before its arrival. I can’t imagine making that trip by boat, let alone 9 months pregnant! How excellent that her death certificate gave a town in Cavan. https://mollyscanopy.com/
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Yes we were fortunate with the information we can gather from the Australian records. It must have been very scary to be pregnant on the voyage. I have not been able to find out what happened to the child.
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I hope you get to Ireland one day. I’ve been to Belfast and Armagh on a conference but was sorry I didn’t get to Fermanagh where my father’s ancestors came from. Then of course I found I had no Irish ancestors as you know. Oh well!
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I am finding my research to be good preparation if we get a chance to go.
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Anne, a note from a couple of great great grandchildren of Margaret Smyth, Mike and Gerard Cross. We are planning a trip in May, visiting the places of our ancestors, the Cross side, Dunolly, Homebush, Avoca, and places around Ballarat, Buninyong, Carngham, Sebastopol, Black Lead, Green Hills. Some places that are long gone. Thanks to you and Russell Cooper a lot of holes were filled regarding our ancestors.
We have some friends in Ballarat to catch up with, but we would like to get together with you and your husband for a coffee and a chat.
Moving on to the Mt. Franklin area, Dry Diggings areas where my mother’s ancestors started life in Victoria in the 1850’s.
Finding your blog started this journey, a journey I find rewarding.
Hoping for a Covid free period to make it possible.
Regards Mike Cross
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We would love to catch up. Let us know closer to the time 🙂
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I hope you get to make that trip to Ireland some day Anne. I’d love to read about your travel and research over there. Lets hope it’s not too long until we can travel again. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to give birth on the long voyage out here.
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That was quite a trip for anyone to make let alone a young lady in the latter stages of pregnancy. Hopefully, you’ll make Ireland sometime soon.
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Anne, presumably, Margaret was unmarried on her journey to Australia, and put on the boat by her family, so they could escape her shame. Humanity has come a long way since then, though in Ireland it may have been more recently than elsewhere.
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Margaret was an assisted immigrant, that is the government paid her passage. An enormous step to emigrate as she never saw her family again. I am not sure her passage would have been arranged just to avoid shame. However, it did strike me as unusual. Perhaps she was going to marry and travel with someone and the arrangement fell through.
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Always so exciting to locate new connections in the search for ancestors. One of my great grandmothers emigrated from Cork, Ireland with her parents and two brothers. They lived in Quebec for awhile before traveling down to Wisconsin – the opposite direction of your ancestors.
https://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com/
(theme: Novel Research – novel as in different/interesting/unusual)
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How wonderful to live so close to where your ancestors originally settled. Hmm. My eyes lit upon the word Cavan and I remembered that my ancestor, Samuel Taylor, lived in the Parish of Cavan near Yass on the Murrumbidgee River. Cavan Station is owned by the Murdoch family.
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